Professor Eric Lane's article, "Albany's Dysfunction Denies Due Process" was featured in the Spring 2010 Pace Law Review. The article was co-written by Laura Seago, a Research Associate in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

EXCERPT:

The coup that shut down the New York State Senate for over a month last summer brought the State Legislature's dysfunction to the forefront of public consciousness. As the public waited for the approval of several critical budget bills and action on a long list of substantive legislation, two members of the newly elected Democratic majority deserted to the Republican side and then switched back again to caucus with the Democrats, destabilizing the already listing New York ship of state and spreading disgust among their colleagues and the public at large.

Professor Hillary Burgess was invited to speak to the Honors Pre-Law Students at the University of Connecticut about how students can best prepare for law school and the practice of law. Her presentation was directed to over a dozen honors pre-law students who have been chosen to participate in the program because of their vast accomplishments. For example, one of the freshmen college students had already started a charity to provide scholarships so that Vietnamese children could attend primary school. Professor Burgess provided advice about what courses to take at the undergraduate level that would help prepare students for the study of law. She also discussed how undergraduate majors could build interdisciplinary skills for certain fields of law that required both knowledge of law and knowledge of another field. The reception was attended by every freshman honors pre-law student and was well-received.

Professor Hillary Burgess presented Structured Peer Feedback: Creating Experts from Novice Learners at the Empire State Legal Writing Conference. She reviewed some experientially validated techniques of using peer feedback within the law school context. She also introduced some original peer review techniques and linked these new techniques to empirically-validated learning theory. The conference focused on teaching legal doctrine in a way that integrates and emphasizes teaching students practical lawyering skills and ethical considerations. This presentation was based on a presentation she gave at the January 2010 AALS Annual Meeting.

Professor Ronald J. Colombo spoke at the annual conference of the GRUTER INSTITUTE FOR LAW AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH on May 25, 2010. The theme of this year’s conference was “Law, Institutions and Human Behavior,” and Prof. Colombo discussed his scholarship on the role of trust in the financial services industry.

Professor Hillary Burgess presented a training on how to wikis to support learning in law school. The training focused on meeting the objectives of Best Practices and Educating Lawyers by providing more feedback, more professional development training, and more collaborative work. Professor Burgess talked about ways that wikis can help professors achieve these learning objectives.